LEAGUE VICTORY Vashon grapplers finish season at the top. Page 14
NEWS | State may not be able to sell the Rhododendron. [4] COMMUNITY | Car towed to Seattle racks up fees. [5] COMMENTARY | School district [6] considers its future.
ART BLOOMS FRIDAY Leaves and lovebirds set off the gallery cruise. Page 12
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2013
Vol. 58, No. 05
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
Park district selects a new director Islander Elaine Ott chosen from a field of four finalists
Fate of ferries again uncertain as session begins By NATALIE JOHNSON Staff Writer
By LESLIE BROWN Staff Writer
The Vashon Park District’s five commissioners selected Elaine Ott — a Vashon woman with an extensive background in finance, marketing and sales — as the new general manager of the small public agency. The board made the decision Friday night, voting five to zero to offer her the job. They sealed the deal Monday night when they offered her a two-year contract at a salary of $78,138 a year. Ott, who was seated in the front row of the small meeting room, stood up after the vote and shook each commissioner’s hand, smiling broadly as she accepted the job. “I feel fabulous,” she said, moments later. “It’s a good opportunity to try to do something good for the community. … I plan to dig right in.” Joe Wald, chair of the commission, said he and his colleagues chose Ott from a field of four finalists because of her strong financial background, her connection to Vashon, her strong references and the sup-
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Leslie Brown/Staff Photo
Elaine Ott shakes John Hopkins’ hand after accepting the job as park district manager Monday night. port islanders voiced for her after she appeared at a public meeting last week and in conversations he’s had over the last several days. “Everyone had nothing but phenomenal things to say about her,” he said. John Hopkins, the board’s newest member, said he, too, was thrilled by her selection. “I think it’s a new era for the
park district,” he said. The salary is higher than the agency had budgeted, but commissioners said they had to offer her a better compensation package if they were to get her to leave her current job as the general manager for a building products manufacturer in Kent, where she makes considerably more money. “That was the hard part,”
Wald said of the higher salary. “But I felt that to get the person we wanted, we had to go up a little bit.” Ott replaces Susan McCabe, the interim executive director who was tapped to take the job after the commissioners terminated Jan Milligan in August. For the past several SEE PARK DISTRICT, 18
As the state legislature convenes this month, lawmakers say they hope to again bail out the ferry system and avoid millions of dollars in service cuts, but it may not be the year they find a permanent solution to the state’s growing transportation deficit. Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D-Burien) said he thought the legislature would be able to move money in the state’s shrinking transportation budget to avoid $5 million in service cuts proposed last month — including ones that would affect Vashon’s routes. And while many, including lawmakers, are calling for a transportation package that would generate sustainable funding for ferries, highways and bridges, Fitzgibbon said the focus of the legislature this session would likely be funding for education. The Washington Supreme Court’s McCleary decision a year ago, which ruled that the state is not meeting its obligation to fully fund education, has put pressure on lawmakers to work toward higher funding of schools ahead of its court-ordered 2018 deadline. “Transportation is definitely high on the list, but most legislators feel the education needs are really urgent. They will probably receive the most attention this year,” said Fitzgibbon, who serves on the transportation committee. In December, Gov. Chris Gregoire put forward a 2013-2015 budget that included $5 million in cuts to ferry service. Washington State Ferries, with a mandate to shave its budget, proposed a raft of cuts on eight ferry routes similar to what SEE FERRIES, 9
Island Landmarks board member files lawsuit, says he’s been defamed By LESLIE BROWN Staff Writer
Saying he’s been defamed by a “dissident group” of islanders, the husband of the founder of Island Landmarks is suing three Vashon women who have spearheaded an effort to wrest control of Mukai Farmhouse from the tightly held nonprofit. J. Nelson Happy, a lawyer and Mary Matthews’ husband, filed the lawsuit on Jan. 17 against Ellen Kritzman, Lynn Greiner and Glenda Pearson, their partners or spouses and eight other people and their partners yet to be named.
Happy, a member of the Island Landmarks board, is seeking punitive damages and lawyers’ fees for the case — judgments, should he prevail, that would come from the women’s personal assets. Happy declined to comment on his suit. But Robert Krinsky, his lawyer, said Happy decided to sue because he’s “a man with a national reputation in his area of practice,” a reputation, he added, that’s been harmed by the high-profile effort by several islanders to take over Island Leslie Brown/Staff Photo Landmarks. Island Landmarks recently repainted the Mukai farmhouse and is in the process of SEE MUKAI, 19
reroofing it. The nonprofit also recently posted “no trespassing” signs around the site.